


The Niehaus Sequence

by Jenni Eales (Jenni_eales)



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:32:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8208170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenni_eales/pseuds/Jenni%20Eales
Summary: Ten years after their graduation of high school Cosima meets a French blonde woman after the anniversary party at the hotel bar. They drink together and share episodes about Prof. Aldous Leekie, while Cosima is totally oblivious about the real identity of the woman. Then a murder happens and they have to escape the conspiracy they are going to be trapped in.





	1. After Midnight

Before she could order another drink, the barkeeper moved over to her and refilled her glass. She smiled and cheered with a sad expression in her eyes. 

She knew she had too much and the night would end in a terrible disaster, but who could blame her for a night like that?!

Cosima sighed. It had been a mistake to accept the invitation to the tenth anniversary of their high school graduation. "Be cool, Cos," Sarah had told her when she had called her after the invitation card had dropped into her letterbox. "It will be a lot of fun. Just remember how much fun we had in that last year..."

Sure, she reminded herself. Cal and their hot romantic affair had been an unforgettable way to have a lot of fun leaving her pregnant at the end of the term. Cosima had wondered how many of the girls had a bunch of kids today, which scared her so much she couldn't make herself to accept the invitation at first. 

It was finally Helena who talked her into coming. "Oh pleeease, geek monkey, you have to come! The organization committee picked a really nice hotel and we will have some fine food to eat..."

Of course Alison was totally excited to be part of that committee and Cosima smiled just thinking how her friend would have been urging the others to make it a really perfect event. 

And indeed the promises were not disappointed. 

Her cell phone buzzed. After a quick look at the display she rejected the call. "No, Sarah! Not now. Not after all that crap."

She took another big gulp from the glass. Just a moment later, the phone rang again.

"They will not leave you alone," a soft voice with a French accent commented right beside her.

Cosima turned curiously. The blonde woman smiled at her and Cosima could not help but stare into her hazel eyes. 

"You're right - I better switch it off." She took the phone and pressed a few buttons.

"So, nobody will interrupt us now," she grinned. "I'm Cosima by the way. Didn't notice you at the meeting. I suppose you were not in the same classes as I was. Or have I lost my memory drastically in the last 10 years."

She gave her a gorgeous smile and offered her a hand. "Delphine," she introduced herself. "And I'm sure there is nothing wrong with your memory."

Cosima took her hand. "Nice to meet you, Delphine," she said and smiled back to the woman. 

"Enchantée," the French girl beamed. 

For a moment they sat there, looking at each other in a moment that felt short before getting awkward. Then they both retrieved their glasses to drink and put them back to the bar again. 

"So you're the wife of..." Cosima started and broke when the smile in the blonde's face froze. 

"Let's avoid talking about him," she sighed. "He is an asshole."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry," Delphine answered. "So how did you like the meeting of your class?"

Cosima hesitated, a serious expression on her face. "Good question," she answered. "I am still not sure about it. It was great to see everyone after like ten years of avoiding remembering them. You know, I am really bad at keeping contacts."

"Oh oui," Delphine confirmed. "Same with me."

Cosima smiled, and then continued. "Sometimes I think I was missing something when I look at these ten years. My friends have their families. My best friend, Sarah's daughter is ten years old, and Alison is married to Donnie. They have two lovely kids, a career, and a house in a suburb, her amateur theater group, the soccer team and so on."

"Oh trust me," Delphine told her. "Being married is completely overestimated."

They laughed and Cosima felt the tension decrease, which had accumulated during the whole night. 

"Did you ever fancy to have children?"

* * *

_2 hours earlier_

"Oh hi Helena," she greeted her former classmate. "Looks like we're not the only ones for the bathroom."

"Heya sestra," Helena answered with her thick accent. "Remember all the time in school they were smoking in the toilets."

"Or been banging like crazy," Cosima grinned. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Of course," Helena beamed. "Alison was not promising too much - the food was really nice. Hey did you see how old our teachers have become?"

They talked for a while until the queue at the bathroom door became smaller, exchanging memories and episodes about their former teachers. 

When they were closer to the bathroom door, they could not help but overhear the dampened moans that came from one of the stalls. 

A few minutes later a blonde woman in a tight business suit swaggered out of the bathroom, trying to avoid their glances. Helena turned to whisper into Cosima's ears: "Oh my - Duncan banging again. She will never change."

They giggled and when they turned, suddenly he stood in front of them. 

"Oh good evening, Dr. Leekie," Cosima greeted the old teacher who had left the ladies bathroom right after Rachel Duncan. 

"Ah, Miss Niehaus," he grumbled at her. "I see you are still hanging around with the losers of the class." 

He turned for a quick exit, but Cosima stopped him. "Wait," she fumed. "You are not serious, aren't you?!"

"It seems, you didn't change, Niehaus," he answered. "You are still the cheeky girl with that terrible inferiority complex."

"What?" Cosima was annoyed. How could that bastard dare! "I definitely have no inferiority complex!"

"Then why are you in such a bad mood," he spat at her. "Everybody is having fun here and I have to see your miserable face."

"If your understanding of 'having fun' is banging a random girl in the bathroom, then don't count on me," Cosima shrugged.

"How dare you..." Leekie started to turn furious. "It turns out I made a big mistake by grading your biology exams so high. You did not even understand how to practice the simple process of procreation."

Cosima stood in front of him with her mouth wide open, speechless. Before she could answer he turned away from her and disappeared in the crowd that had formed around them.

"Let him go, Cosima!" Helena held her back from running after him. "You know what. It's just been a fake show."

Cosima stared at her, not understanding what she meant. But she nodded to her friend and smiled. "You're right, meathead. Obvs. "

"Come on, Cos," Helena proposed. "Let's check if there is something left from the dessert buffet."

"Good idea. Wait, you are diabetic, aren't you?!"

"Not anymore," Helena smiled. "I am healed you know."

"Then let's go," Cosima grinned, not sure if he could believe what Helena just had told her.


	2. On The Rooftop

They stayed silent for a moment when Cosima finished telling Delphine about the incident with Aldous Leekie, her former biology teacher. 

Cosima had observed that the French girl's expression had become more serious while she talked and she looked rather sad now. 

Secretly she wiped a tear from the eye and Cosima pretended she had not noticed it. 

"He is such a fucking asshole," Cosima said with a mischievous grin. "He always was." 

Delphine nodded. "Oui."

Cosima moved a bit closer to her. "Hey, we should not let him get away with this and punish him for it. I could burn down his house, fuck his wife and kick his ass badly." 

She dared a careful giggle and Cosima was happy to see her smile again.

"Non," she answered. "If you really want to hurt him, just scratch the paint of his Ferrari."

Both women laughed heartily. 

"We could do that later when everybody is asleep," Cosima whispered into Delphine's ear. She could smell her perfume and cold smoke.

"Bad idea," she shook her head. "There are cameras everywhere."

"Hmmm okay. Then we'd start with his house and his wife."

* * *

They talked a while and Cosima really enjoyed the conversation with the gorgeous French woman. Cosima shared some memories from school and Delphine listened with an interest that didn't appear fake. Then Delphine shared memories of her past life in France and how they had come to America to study and how much she missed her friends and family. 

"Hey would you like to come with me to the roof," Delphine proposed after some time. "If we won't get to bed we could also hang around there for a bit."

"And I badly need to have a smoke," she added.

She waved to the Barkeeper. "Can we have two bottles of that Cabernet Sauvignon, s'il vous plait."

"Bien sur, Madame," he answered and brought the wine. "I'll add this on Professor Leekie's account too. Bon nuit, Madame Leekie."

"Merci beaucoup." Delphine took the bottles and both grinned and left.

"Holy watershed," Cosima exclaimed. "You made that old creep pay for our wine! Could have been my idea!"

They escaped to the rooftop through the staircase and an emergency exit. The night was still warm and they sat on a pile of bricks, taking turns to drink from the bottle.

"Cheers," Cosima said smiling. "To a night if surprises, old enemies and new friends."

"Santé," Delphine answered smiling back at her.

She retrieved a box of cigarettes and took one of them. "You smoke? Do you want one?"

"No, just pot for me," Cosima grinned. 

"Ooh, really?"

"Yeah," Cosima confirmed. "You'd like to try?"

Delphine shrugged and lit her cigarette.

"I am going to get you so baked one day."

Both women giggled. "You are cheeky," Delphine observed and Cosima gave her another toothy grin.

For a while they just sat together in silence, smoking, drinking and feeling the warm air of the night. It is not the least bit feeling awkward, Cosima thought and a rush of happiness run through her body as she watched the blonde woman finish her smoke.

Finally Delphine continued to talk. "Is there a reason, Leekie was reacting so... harshly?" she asked. "It sounds there is a lot more than the usual annoyance to make him react like that. What did you do to make him hate you like this?"

"Oh well..." Cosima grinned. "I swear I only wanted to play a little prank on him ten years ago. I sneaked in his office at school with an eel to hide it somewhere. Then I could not resist checking his computer, found his password on a small note under his keyboard..."

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes!" Cosima grinned. "I ended checking his hard disk, changed Helena's biology grades, copied his private encryption key and uploaded a folder of documents to my web server, which were obviously 'hidden' on his drive which turned out to be some top secret research papers from DYAD about human cloning, which turned out to be quite a headline when I posted it on WikiLeaks...."

"The Leekie Leaks," Delphine confirmed. "That was a great story. DYAD performing illegal experiments on human cloning. I almost lost my job when the projects were shut down."

"Ups," Cosima smirked. "Nothing personal though."

"Leekie was totally mad," Delphine added. "And not only about that eel. Hey wait - so YOU are 'geekmonkey'?!"

"Yep"

"Cool," Delphine grinned. "I was impressed by your article about the ethical consequences of research in the cloning area."

"Thanks. So you're in microbiology, too, right?"

"Yes," Delphine answered. "Um, immunology. I studied host-parasite relationships. Now I am working for DYAD. Research on new healing strategies mainly."

"Oh, cool, cool! Yeah, I'm evo-devo."

"Evolutionary development."

"Yeah, yeah. That's... that's what we call it here. Tell me more about that project."

And quickly the both women were in the midst of a talk about science, their jobs, their projects, objectives, careers and dreams.

After an hour drinking, talking, smoking and more drinking both women were pretty drunk, but none of them would have considered separating and calling it a night.

"Come on, Cosima. Let us spend the night out here. We can get more wine, talk and drink together. I will not go home tonight. I will leave that asshole of husband. He will never hurt me again."

"So you are really leaving him?" Cosima asked.

"Oui." Delphine nodded. "You see, I don't even have a bed to go now."

Her voice sounded really sad now and Cosima moved closer and took her into a gentle hug. 

Delphine wiped a tear from her eyes and held her closer. 

"Don't be sad, Delphine," Cosima whispered inhaling her scent that almost drove her crazy.

"Thank you, Cosima," she said after a while. "I am feeling much better now."

The two women were silent now, holding each other, enchanted by the closeness and tenderness of the contact of their bodies.

"Don't you think it's time we admit what this is really about?" Cosima broke the silence, trying to look into Delphine's eye in the dim glow of the city lights.

Then their faces moved closer, their lips met and they started kissing. Softly first, gently and hesitant. Oh wow, that was feeling so good and so right, like the fulfillment of a lifetime's desire. Their tongues explored, danced....

Delphine abruptly broke the kiss. "I um..." she murmured.

"Oh. Oh, God, Delphine. Uh... did I make a huge mistake?"

Delphine shook her head. "Non. Je suis... totally drunk..."

"Yes you are probably right," Cosima nodded. "I mean we should not do something in this state of mind we'd regret later."

"Non" Delphine smiled. "Je ne regrette rien."

"Anyway," Cosima sighed. "Come on, Delphine. A bed would be nice. Let me offer you to share my room with you. I promise you're safe."

They smiled. "Where could I be more safe than with you, Cosima," Delphine answered and took her hand to join her for the night.


	3. Almost Morning

The electric light of the corridors and the hotel room stole a bit of the night's magic. Cosima could tell from the way Delphine walked that the French woman did have too much of the wine. 

She was glad Delphine agreed to join her rather than spending the night on the roof. Fortunately the room had a double bed. Cosima thought about the morning when they would have to say good-bye and her heart hurt just thinking about it. At least they had a few more hours...

"Here we are." Cosima retrieved the key card and opened the door. "Make yourself comfortable."

She quickly gathered some of her belongings that were spread all over the room and sat on her bed. "You can have the left side of the bed."

"Merci," she smiled, shyly looking around in the room.

"You can use the bathroom first if you like." Cosima offered. "Do you need a shirt or something?"

"Non, it's okay"', she answered and moved to the bathroom.

Cosima undresses to her underwear and sat on the bed. 

When Delphine left the bathroom Cosima was stunned by her beauty. She had removed her dress and was only wearing a beautiful white lace teddy.

"Wow, you are so beautiful!" Cosima admired and Delphine blushed. Cosima stared at her for a moment, and then quickly hurried into the bathroom.

_Oh shit, I should not stare! Cos you are falling for her. Obvs._

When she returned Delphine was lying in her bed. Cosima went to bed too, pulled the cover over her body and switched off the light.

"Good night, Delphine."

Good night, Cosima. Thank you so much."

The both stated into the darkness, tired, drunk but unable to sleep.

"Cosima...?"

"Yes?"

"I can't stop thinking about that kiss," Delphine admitted.

"Ah, like in a... not-bad way?" _I knew it, Cosima thought. I screwed it big time. And she is not gay._

"Oh, like... I have never thought about bisexuality," Delphine explained thoughtfully. "I mean, for myself, you know? But as a scientist, I know that sexuality is a spectrum. But, you know, social biases, they codified attraction. It's contrary to the biological facts... you know?"

"Mm-hmm. That's... oddly romantic."

Cosima laughed and blushed and blushed, a hand moving over to find Delphine's shoulders. "And totally encouraging."

Moments later their bodies merged in a sweet embrace. Their lips found each other and melted together, kissing passionately and without holding back anything.

Hands wandered over each other's body, hips and thighs moving together. Delphine moaned softly.

A hand wandered over Cosima's mound and towards her center. She opened her thighs, hungry for the touch. 

"Stop," she suddenly interrupted their love-making. 

Delphine looked at her. "Cosima... I'm sorry. It is the first time for me with a woman. What did I make wrong?"

Cosima smiled. "Oh sweetie. You are doing wonderful. Totally. I just want it to be... you. Want it to be perfect. Want both of us to be sober enough to really enjoy it. I don't want it to be just a night we share. A one-night stand. Just an episode to remember."

Delphine nodded and smiled, then kissed her gently. "Oui, you are absolutely right." She was silent for a moment, thinking. "I wasn't sure if I would ever see you again after tomorrow and I was afraid to think about what I missed for the rest of my life."

"You won't." Cosima grinned. "How could I ever leave you if you look at me with these hazel eyes, like a puppy or something."

They giggled and kissed again, then Delphine yawned deeply.

"I get it, Sleepyhead," Cosima teased. "Let us sleep for a bit. I think cuddling together would be okay."

"Oui," Delphine smiled. "Absolutely."

* * *

Feeling Delphine close to her body turned to be not very helpful. She was soft and warm and she had enchanted Cosima with intelligece and easy conversation.

It was not long before sunrise when she finally fell asleep.

She woke up from loud and impatient knocking at the door of her room only a few hours later. She jumped out of bed and out of the bedroom, carefully closing the door to avoid waking up Delphine.

"What's up?" she answered through the closed door. "Am I too late to check out?"

"Cosima, this is Beth Childs," her visitor answered through the door. "We need to talk."

"Shit Beth, can't that wait after breakfast? You know it was really late yesterday..."

"I'm sorry, Cos. This is officially today."

Cosima quickly grabbed a shirt and got dressed, and then opened the door.

Beth was serious. She was completely dressed in her police uniform, accompanied by a tall black officer.

"This is Detective Bell," Beth introduced her colleague.

"Did I do something wrong," Cosima asked. "Besides drinking too much." Suddenly her head was hurting terribly.

"No no," Beth answered. "There has been a murder we are investigating. We want to ask a few questions to help us find the murderer quickly."

"Sure." 

"We are searching for the wife of Professor Aldous Leekie," she explained. "She is under the suspicion to have murdered her husband tonight."

"Holy shit!" Cosima exclaimed. "Leekie killed? You know that creep was never my favorite teacher...."

"We know," Beth confirmed. "And we know of your argument yesterday in front of the ladies bathroom."

"But I swear I would never kill somebody for talking shite!"

"Yes of course," Beth nodded. "Actually we are searching for Dr. Delphine Cormier. You were witnessed to leave the bar in her company after midnight."

"Oh shit. Beth," Cosima slowly understood. "The blond Frenchie I was drinking with. We met at the bar. She is really Leekie's wife??"

"Widow," Beth corrected her. "But yes. If you happen to hear about her whereabouts, please call me immediately."

"Sure thing," Cosima lied. "I..."

"Sorry for the inconvenience," Beth said and the two police officers left, leaving a completely dumbstruck and bewildered Cosima behind.


	4. The Trip back

Cosima returned to her bed, but could not sleep. Finally she got up and switched on the TV. The headline was on all channels:

"The Nobel Laureate Professor Aldous Leekie was murdered in a hotel room in the early morning hours. His wife, Dr. Delphine Cormier, who possibly injected the poison, that is presumed to be the cause of his death, is on the run. The police was alerted by the night porter who found the dead body shortly after the deed."

"Oh shit," she sighed. "We're in serious trouble."

She returned to the bedroom watching Delphine sleeping peacefully on her side of the bed. Perhaps she should have told Beth the truth. But Delphine wasn't guilty of that murder and she had an alibi. But would anybody believe her story?

Delphine turned around and opened her cute puppy eyes.

"Bon jour, ma chérie!" Her voice still sounded sleepy.

"Hey good morning, Honey," Cosima gently answered. "How are you?"

"Much better with you around," Delphine answered and smiled. "Mal aux cheveux... In need for a headache pill and une grande café..."

"Sounds like a plan," Cosima smiled. Let me order room service and fill you up with the latest news then."

After ordering coffee, orange juice and bread rolls Cosima informed Delphine about the murder of her husband and the investigation of the police. 

"Merde!" Cosima noticed the other woman was a lot more angry than sad. "He was an asshole, you know. I was leaving him, but he did not deserve that. Even though he made me so furious I couldn't have killed him."

"I doubt you would have done him much harm," Cosima said. "You are not the cold-blooded killer type."

"Bien, merci," she smiled. "Would you tell the police for the records?"

"Nah. They would give a shit on my impression. Maybe they'd call me biased or something," Cosima answered. "And I really doubt you should go to the police."

The remained silent for a moment and Cosima thought that she would have loved to kiss her again very soon.

"So what are we doing now?" she asked.

"What did you plan to do?" Delphine asked.

"I was thinking about a hot bath, more coffee and a cab to take my flight back to Minneapolis at 1:30 pm. You?"

"Aldous' private jet back to Toronto."

"Wow. But impossible now."

"Oui."

She looked a bit lost now and Cosima leaned over to kiss her softly. "I'll skip the flight. Let's rent a car and drive the long way to Toronto. How long is it? Like 900 kilometers?"

"Maybe." She smiled, and nodded her head. "But I would never pull you into the trouble I'm stuck in now. You take that flight and I... will think of something."

"This is totally bullshit!" Cosima made it clear with the help of her hands. "We will sneak out here, get us a car and off we go. Like Thelma and Louise."

They laughed and kissed again and did not discuss other options then. They took turns to take a shower and get dressed and Cosima called the reception and asked for a rental service.

"Ok Delphine," she gave the blonde the good news. "We have a Renault waiting for us in the Garage in about 30 minutes."

* * *

Silently they waited for the call that announced that the car was ready. Cosima took her bags and left to retrieve keys and papers of the car, and then checked if the path was clear for Delphine to sneak out of the room and leave without being seen by whoever could report them to the police.

Then finally they were on the road. Delphine sighed in relieve and their conversation quickly became a bit lighter. Soon they came back to Leekie and the research of the company and Delphine gave her new friend a short update about the recent development.

"After his cloning project had to be stopped we worked on genetic reproductive cures on genetic deceases," Delphine said. "His honor was only restored when he identified the genes responsible for cancer and found a way to repair embryos in an early stage."

"Later he found a way to cure cancer by replacing genes with a programmed virus, which is now the main business of the institute."

"Wow that sounds like a god-like healing technology," Cosima commented, really impressed. "I bet they have a really brilliant immunologist to work this out."

Delphine blushed and Cosima could not help but stare at the other woman with a large grin on her face.

"The cure against cancer was only the start, though that alone made DYAD one of the richest research groups ever. Alzheimers, hay fever, ALS, diabetes - as soon as we were able to isolate the genetic defect we could design a patch to repair. I think everything went really great until he came in contact with these Neolution guys."

"What was that about?"

"These people appeared to be a some kind of spiritual group at the first glance," Delphine explained. "They were talking about evolutionary technologies to improve human being, bringing mankind to 'another level'. But I quickly found they were going much farther than DYAD ever wanted in body modifications. It started in projects of body modification for beauty and overweight, over increase of sexual stamina until subtle brain modifications to change the subject's personalities."

"Wow, that sounds gross." Cosima stared at her, thinking about the impact of what she just heard.

"Watch the street!" Delphine shouted.

"Oops. Sorry. Was a little bit distracted..."

Again they laughed and Cosima badly wished she could kiss the French girl again very soon.

"It is impressive how Leekie was developing from a creepy biology teacher to a successful businessman and Nobel Laureate," she mused.

Delphine shook her head. "Non, there isn't anything impressive here. He was a friend of my father."

"Holy shit!" Cosima suddenly understood. "Your dad was Professor Patrick Cormier then. I read so much about his research. His approach on decryption of the genetic code is the base of all knowledge in that area."

"Oui," she smiled. "This was him. He was the impressive one. I fear Leekie had none of his qualities. He was simply the one that could lead the company and sell the fruits of the DYAD research and patents. Uncle Pierre recommended him and Maman had the idea to arrange that marriage. Back then it looked like a good deal for me. How could I have been so naïve?!"

"Dr. Pierre Fournier?"

"Yes."

"Cool. He is my boss," Cosima said. "Or the boss of my boss' boss. Something like this. Another brilliant guy in that field."

Again that mind-blowing smile from the blonde woman Cosima was totally falling for.

"And then?" she asked. "Someday you found out the truth about Leekie being a total asshole."

Delphine nodded. "He is a complete power guy. He loves to have the control. His employees, the institute, the family, his wife."

"Oh yes, I can totally imagine that. So what was it that you decided you'd finally leave him?"

She sighed. After a moment of hesitation she started to tell.

* * *

_12 hours earlier_

"Non, Aldous. You don't dare do this!"

Delphine was more than angry when Leekie told her about his ambitious plans. In the same moment she knew he was determined to do whatever it took to go there even against her will. 

"Why do you hesitate, Darling? It is the answer to the most urgent question of mankind. To understand the cause of aging of organisms and the fugacity of life."

She nodded. Sure it was. She had also been excited about the project and its results. Obviously much more due to her curiosity to understand life and the universe and how everything was working than the business opportunities the discovery could impact.

"Are you looking for another Nobel Prize? You shouldn't mess around with things like that. Don't you think about the consequences?"

"I do. I will be 70 in a year and my wife is so young and beautiful."

Yes, that had always been their main problem. His jealousy and inability to give her anything in return, trying hard to be more than just successful with everything he did, she thought. Him being 34 years older was a minor issue in comparison.

"And then, Aldous? Live forever without even having balls? How sad!"

SLAP

The pain was unexpected. She gave him a fierce look. This time he really went too far.

"Hell Aldous," she spat at him. "Go back to school and tell horny teens about their biology!"

She took her bag and left their room, heading to the bar. She would never allow him to treat her like that again.

* * *

"I shouldn't have said it."

Cosima nodded.

"He shouldn't have slapped you," she added.

"Those were his weakest points, "Delphine explained. "Being an unsuccessful teacher without any enthusiasm to teach. And having that testicular cancer, needing the surgery two months before the cure was successful."

"Hehe I don't envy him," Cosima scoffed. "He could not even mount his beautiful wife that way."

"Oui. It was terrible. For him. "

"Of course!"

Delphine blushed. _Shit, she looks so damn cute when she blushes like that,_ Cosima thought.

"So Helena was right," Cosima observed. "That episode in the bathroom was a fake."

"He made such silly things just to hide the secret he was a sexual cripple."

"Oh this is hard to hear from his widow," Cosima grinned. "No pun intended."

"You are such a brat!"


	5. Science Talk

They drove for another hour until it was about dinner time, taking turns at the wheel.

"How about taking a break and finding a nice motel to spend the night?" Cosima proposed after Delphine yawned for the third time.

"That sounds like a lovely idea," Delphine answered smiling. "Besides I was thinking we couldn't simply walk into my house while the police are searching for me."

"Yeah totally," Cosima confirmed. "Then let's do it. Spend the night somewhere, get something to eat and try to find a solution."

"Oui. I'm famished. Besides I remember we started something we couldn't finish properly yesterday."

"Right! Trust me - I did not forget about it."

Delphine blushed again making Cosima grin from one ear to the other.

They followed the sign of a motel off from the main road to a small village and a friendly motel. A friendly old lady welcomed them at the reception and offered them the key for their room and directions to a little French restaurant, that offered some nice menu for dinner. 

"I wish I could invite you to a real date here," Cosima smiled at Delphine. 

"Oh oui, ma amour," Delphine smiled back. "A pity we skipped that part and went directly to running away with each other."

"How about this," Cosima added. "I would like to promise you solemnly to take you to a real grand super awesome date including a nice dinner, maybe a movie, hot making out in the car..."

"Hmmm I would love that."

They kissed with passion until the waitress interrupted them and brought the wine.

"Careful with the wine," Cosima teased and whispered into the blonde's ear. "I have plans with you tonight..."

"Oh, Mademoiselle," Delphine blushed and played with her hair. "Do you want me to check if the maitre de cuisine would speed up a bit..."

They giggled and continued with their light talk until dinner was served. Silently they ate, now and then glancing at each other, smiling and praising how delicious the food tasted.

"How about ordering truffles for dessert?" Delphine proposed waving to the waitress without waiting for Cosima's answer.

"Hmmm that was totally delicious," Cosima complimented Delphine's choice. They smiled and kissed again. 

"How about a little walk and a quick update of the news before we jump into the bed..."

"...just to increase the anticipation." The giggled and hugged each other closely. 

They took their time for the walk and both of them could not think of anything else but sleep with each other soon. 

They returned to the motel and their room in excited silence. "I am ready for you in a bit," Cosima went to the bathroom first. She felt bit tired, but the cold water helped her fresh up quickly. 

Delphine was already in her undies when Cosima left the bathroom. "Une petite moment, ma chérie," she said. "Make yourself comfortable and I am with you in a minute."

Cosima undressed down to her thong and crawled into the bed. She pulled the cover up to surprise Delphine. The bed was soft and warm, and she yawned. 

_I am not tired..._

Delphine smiled when she found Cosima asleep and cuddled against her, holding her close. "Sleep well, ma chérie," she whispered softly. They would have their time soon, she was certain. 

* * *

When Cosima woke up the next morning, she jumped right out of the bed. The room was light in the morning sun and the bed was empty. 

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed. "I did fail it... again."

"Bon jour," the French woman greeted her. "And non, you didn't fail anything."

"I am so sorry, Delphine," Cosima said with a low voice.

Delphine moved over to her and kissed her. "No need to be sorry, ma chérie. Not for being tired. Being a fugitive is really an exhausting job."

"Yes," Cosima grinned. "Totally."

They took their time to kiss and hug and Cosima tried to pull Delphine back to the bed, but the blonde resisted the alluring attempt. 

"Non," she pulled away. "Get dressed, Cosima, and let's get breakfast. And I will check the news on TV in the meantime."

Cosima joined her on the couch to see the news about the latest events in the Leekie case: 

"The murder of Nobel Laureate Prof. Aldous Leekie is close before cleared up: The police confirmed that a patient of Prof. Leekie, Helena M. citizen of the Ukraine, has been arrested under the suspect of applying a deadly dose of an unknown toxic substance. The culprit is assumed to be a member of the Proletheans, a religious sect which had been attacking DYAD in the past because of their denial of genetic manipulations for medical reasons."

A really bad photo of Helena was shown and both women exclaimed "Helena!," then looking at each other. "So you know her too?!"

"Shhh..."

The news continued. "The investigators of the crime are still alarmed about the sudden vanishing of Leekie's wife, the DYAD immunologist Dr. Delphine Cormier. She was last seen alive in the hotel where Leekie's body was found. "

Delphine's photo wasn't a lot better. Leekie was holding her as if he was afraid that she was running away. "Public authorities investigate in several directions. Even an abduction of the French scientist could not be excluded completely. Any hints about her whereabouts can be reported to your local police office."

They switched off when the news switched to the latest news to report about the latest affair of some more or less famous actress. 

"Helena was in my class," Cosima said. "She was on the anniversary committee too and was one of the people that witnessed that little... incident with Leekie in the bathroom queue."

"Hmm," Delphine mused. "That could be a strange coincidence. But she knew Leekie. She was one of our patients."

"Her diabetes," Cosima understood.

"Yes. She was suffering some really bad adverse effects after the treatment and joined the campaign of the Proletheans after we could not help her."

"I didn't know. She appeared a bit... nervous on the meeting. Exhilarated, like she was on a rush of adrenaline."

"The effects resulted in an unexpected mental... state," Delphine explained. "We changed here genes to heal the diabetes, but we also changed her appetite. Like we turned her into some sugar addict. And she was caught doing crazy things when we observed her."

"I see," Cosima nodded. "Understanding and localizing the exact genetic programming is not a simple task. I spent a long time trying to understand the genetic code. It is complex in an awesome way."

"It is," Delphine confirmed. "DYAD was working for eight years to decipher the complete information of the human chromosomes."

"Cool," Cosima was impressed. "Then we should talk about the genetic grammar soon. There are some constructs I am still not understanding."

"Genetic grammar?!" Now it was Delphine who was impressed. "You are doing research on the grammar of genes?"

"Yes," Cosima explained. Now she was completely on her favorite topic, supporting the words with gestures of her hands, that danced on the air while she talked with an excitement that made Delphine speechless. "Scott, a friend of me, helped me to analyze the code. He is working in the computing area feeding his computers with big data to find patterns in really large amounts of data. We scanned a lot of chromosome sets from a nice lot of subjects and fed the system with it. It took 50 hours to compute, but the result was just a big surprise. We could read the code like the commands of a software program in the end. Not completely though, but a lot of it."

"Wow," Delphine was very excited herself too. "That would give us a lot of opportunities I am sure. We often need to run a lot of experiments to find out, how a certain genetic sequence can be altered to have the required effect to the patient. And in several cases the collateral damage of the adverse effects is a major topic. Believe me - healing cancer was pretty easy compared to that diabetes modification."

They continued their science talk for a bit until they decided to go for breakfast and get back on the road again. 


	6. The Hiding Place

When they were back on the road again it was Cosima who finally put the question, that was unsaid in their heads: "So what is the plan now? Okay they are no longer trying to arrest you for killing Leekie. Going home would be an option for you, though I would not recommend."

It was Cosima who finally put the question, that was unsaid in their heads: "So what is the plan now? Okay they are no longer trying to arrest you for killing Leekie. Going home would be an option for you, though I would not recommend."

"Very true," Delphine answered. "His murderer is still out there and I am too scared to consider to talk to the police."

"Yes," Cosima agreed and grinned. "As long you are 'abducted', you might be safe."

"Oh I could get used to be with such a cute kidnapper," Delphine smiled. 

"Then let me drag you to a secret hideaway," Cosima said.

"I like that idea," Delphine answered and now it was only half joking. "We need a hiding place. Let me call Danielle..."

She retrieved her cell phone from her bag.

"No!" Cosima interrupted her before she could switch it on. "You should not use the phone or your credit card," she recommended. "They can track your position then."

"Merde! You're right."

"Use my phone." Delphine nodded and took Cosima's smartphone. 

"Danielle is my cousin," she explained. "She is also working for DYAD."

"Can we trust her?"

Delphine did not need to think about it long. "Oui. If I cannot trust Danielle, I cannot trust anybody."

"Ok. That is good. Will she be able to help us?"

"Let's see." She retrieved the number from the search engine and dialed. A minute later she was in the mid of a French conversation, which was impossible for Cosima to understand.

After a few minutes they said "au revoir" and ended the call.

"So?"

"We have a hiding place," Delphine reported. "Danielle is back in France at the moment, so we can have the city apartment until things have been... clarified."

"And the ransom is paid," Cosima grinned.

They went back to the road. While they drove, they discussed their options. "First thing to find out is to clarify if the murder has something to do with DYAD research," Delphine said. "You know. Did Aldous work on something the Proletheans needed to stop."

"What about military interests?" Cosima wondered. 

"We investigated plans and risks with intelligence and several national committees." Delphine had a long list of names of institutions and partner companies DYAD was in cooperation with. "There was almost no resistance against our business," she explained. "Surely some religious groups were starting campaigns against 'messing around with God's creations'. But the Nobel Prize helped us to push them back from the public. On the other side investors and interest groups appeared, which had plans that went much further than any ethic committee would ever accept. Like a group of feminists that wanted to enforce equality by genetic means..."

"Oh wow!"

"Aldous never even talked with these. You know, he preferred the classical serving and mothering role of women."

"Though he allowed you to have your career!"

"Easy thing when you own enough of DYAD," Delphine rolled her eyes.

"Good point," Cosima grinned.

"The Neolutions were different," Delphine continued. "They expected much more from DYAD than the boards would ever accept. And they had a lot of money to fund our research."

"Allowing Leekie to have his own money?"

"He had more he could ever spend. He was much more interested in power. It annoyed him that he needed me to have the position he had."

"Which could be a motivation for you to kill him," Cosima commented.

"On the first glance, maybe," Delphine answered. "But I could have dumped him easily without any problems."

They discussed other options. The Prolethean story still sounded best, but Cosima could not imagine that Helena would have been the murder. "She is more the knife type," Cosima said. "Something bloody, dramatic."

"We will find out," Delphine nodded. With Cosima on her side, discussing options, thinking of reasons and listening to her argumentation she appeared a lot more optimistic than somebody would have expected. 

The finally arrived at Danielle's apartment. They parked the car in a dark corner of the garage and took their little luggage with them.

The apartment was not very large, but had everything they needed. There was a nicely decorated living room, a well equipped kitchen with a dining table for two, a bathroom and a bedroom with a cozy double bed.

"I guess I could get used to that," Cosima smiled. "Your cousin has a nice taste in style."

"Glad you like Danielle's style," Delphine answered, "because I need to borrow some clothing from her."

"I bet you'd look just hot in just any kind of lingerie you'd wear," Cosima teased and caught Delphine in a hug. "You could even go without undies while we're trapped her, you know," she whispered in her ear.

"You're so cheeky," Delphine blushed but turned her face to kiss Cosima. 

Cosima pulled her closer, their kissing becoming more and more passionate. Hands wandering all over their bodies and a thigh rubbed against Delphine's crotch making her moan softly in anticipation as sheer lust spread in their bodies.

"Stop," Delphine finally interrupted them. 

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I badly need a shower."

Cosima grinned. "Me too. Obvs. So I might join you."

Delphine blushed again and Cosima just took her hand and led her into the bathroom, then silently helped her undress leaving a small pile of clothing on the floor.

A minute later the two women were in the shower, hot water and even hotter touches and kisses running all over their bodies. 

"Hmmm sweetie, I love your boobs," Cosima smiled caressing Delphine's chest and playing with her perky nipples. "Your skin is soo soft and smooth."

Her hands moved further down, following the shape of her belly, the hips, her thighs and her bum. 

"And woooow - you're all shaved!" The palm of her hand caressed her mound and traced the shape of her soft pussy lips. 

"Hope you like," Delphine moaned. "But non. Not shaved. It's a little genetic body modification."

"Oh really?!" Cosima was even more surprised. 

"Oui," Delphine smiled. "A present from Aldous for my 30th birthday. He hated to eat me before I shaved, and when he lost his balls..."

She moaned softly when Cosima slipped a finger between her lips and gently massaged her clit. Her own hand wandered to Cosima's crotch and past her patch of pubic hair.

"Shouldn't we wash our bodies and hair before we...." Delphine moaned louder as a finger gently slipped into her moist channel. 

"Bed...," she just whispered when she felt the tension rise. She badly needed to come, but she also wanted to enjoy it.

Quickly they headed to the bedroom leaving a trail of water on the floor. Both women fell on the bed instantly hugging together and Cosima rolled the French woman on her back and mounted her, their pussies rubbing against each other's, lips joined in another hot kiss and arms wrapped around each other holding them close.

They rocked against each other for a while, feeling their wetness and moans rise with their lust.

"Merde," Delphine finally gave up. "You almost get me there, but it looks like I can't come... like that."

"So you are more the penetration type?" Cosima grinned. 

"Oui." Delphine blushed again, what made Cosima smile a big toothy smile. She rolled on the side and moved Delphine's leg over her own legs, spreading her wide open and pushing two fingers into her soaking wet pussy.

Pumping in and out of her pussy, massaging the soft walls and adding a bit more pressure to her clit when the fingers went deep brought her near the point of new return quickly. Delphine's moans grew louder and her hips rocked eagerly against the thrusting fingers.

She came with a soft cry and Cosima could not help but stare at the beautiful expression in her face, the pink cheeks of excitement and these little drops of sweat from the heat of their love-making.

Then she collapsed on her back, her breathing going fast and Cosima could tell her heartbeat speed up as well. She removed her soaking wet fingers and covered the other woman's sex with her hand.

Delphine pulled her into a close embrace holding her body near as she slowly came down to earth again. 

"That was unbelievable," she said with a muted voice.

"Are you crying?" Cosima wondered and kissed of a tear from her face. "Was it that bad?"

"Non! Not at all. I always cry after sex." She smiled through her tears. "You can't imagine how guilty Aldous looked then. As if an orgasm was hurting like hell."

They laughed and kissed and Cosima caressed the soft pussy lips of the French woman again.

"What about you?" Delphine asked. "I think you deserve a little reward."

"You don't need to," Cosima said. But Delphine already rolled on her belly an turned around to move her face beside Cosima's crotch. Her fingers run through the little patch of hair above her mound, traced the shape of her mound and pussy lips until a finger gently slipped inside the slit, exploring het folds and greeting the hardened bud of her clit. 

She moved closer and spread Cosima's pussy open, looking at her beautiful sex for a moment. 

"Hmmm I love the way she looks," Delphine said and bend her head down to kiss her right between the opened lips. 

Now it was Cosima who started moaning in pleasure. "Wow, I didn't dare to dream you were kissing me down there," she admitted. "I guess I'm totally the 'Suck my clitoris' type of girl, you know..." 

Both women laughed happily and the Delphine continued kissing and licking the other woman's pussy and Cosima closed her eyes and simply enjoyed the increasing pleasure starting to spread from her center.

A few orgasms later the women were still cuddled together in the afterglow of their love-making. Cosima woke up from her little nap as Delphine moved. "I could kill for some ice cream," the blonde sighed.

Cosima smiled at her, slowly opening her eyes with a happy smile on her face. "Mmm. Okay. Your wish is my command. I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to get us some Eskimo Pies."

"Eskimo?" Delphine just didn't understand.

"Yeah."

"I don't think I know it."

"No?"

"No," Delphine confirmed.

"Prepare yourself" Cosima got out if the bed slipping into the first piece of clothing she found and grabbed her glasses from the bedside table. "You're about to become a craven addict."

"I think I already am," Delphine mumbled looking at the other woman. 

Cosima smiled and left.


	7. A Visit to the Leekies

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the bed, licking the ice cream, which Delphine confirmed really was another unforgettable experience, and later they ordered pizza and fed each other, laughing, kissing, caressing and giving each other summaries of their lives.

Later the topic changed to the murder and the thread of somebody chasing after Delphine too and they discussed the options they had to find out what really happened in that fateful night.

Cosima retrieved her laptop from her bag and they checked their mails. 

"Let me try to login to the company system," Delphine proposed. "Maybe we could find a hint on the 'poison' that killed Aldous. I am sure it wasn't just some toxic substance but a custom genetic modification applied with a special virus as carrier, like we use it for the body modifications or treatments DYAD prepares."

"I agree," Cosima said. "The culprit could probably have to do with these DYAD plans. What if Proletheans found out what Aldous was working on..."

"Oui. Or somebody who hated him."

"Like me?"

"Yes. You killed him to get his wife into your bed," Delphine grinned.

"Or like you. When we met that night you were fuming mad with Leekie."

Meanwhile Delphine had logged into the DYAD company portal and tried to access the project repository. "Merde!," she grumbled. "I am locked out. Without the security certificate I haven't access to the directories from your laptop. And I left mine in the hotel."

"Not good," Cosima thought. "Any other machine we could borrow? What about your cousin? You mentioned she was working for DYAD too?"

"But not in one of the operational department. She is working in the marketing team."

"Does she know somebody from the IT department who can send us the certificate?"

"You don't know our security policy," Delphine sighed.

"Any other idea?"

"Non. Except one. But it might be a risk."

"What is it?"

"If we had access to Aldous' laptop," Delphine explained. "He didn't take it with him for the weekend. So it is in his office at home."

"And we know of his weakness for weak passwords," Cosima grinned. 

"Then let's go."

"Yeah. Let's visit the Leekies!"

They finally left the bedroom. Delphine searched through Danielle's wardrobe, choosing a pretty set of lace lingerie and a cute summer dress with floral print. "You're beautiful," Cosima complimented her. She had chosen one of her favorite black leggings with a dark red top and her ankle boots. 

It already started to get dark when they headed to the car. Cosima was driving again and Delphine gave her directions. 

"Next street right and we're almost there," she said.

When they turned into the street they quickly scanned the cars in the parking lot. 

"Shit," Cosima saw the suspicious car parking in the drive first. "Cops are still waiting for us."

"Oui. Not sure if these are cops though. Don't stop here. Turn to the left over there. We'll take the backdoor then."

Cosima followed her directions and the left the car in a back road. Delphine led them through a walkway all around the block until they entered a large garden through a wooden gate. 

"Wow," Cosima commented. "The Leekies seem to have a nice gardening style."

"I will tell Paul, our gardener," Delphine smiled.

They sneaked through the garden and stepped down the stairs to the basement entrance without a sound. The metal door was locked, but Delphine retrieved a key from beneath a stone in one of the flower beds.

"Take my hand," she whispered. "We can't risk to making a noise or switch on the light."

It took them several minutes to creep through the darkness, up a steep staircase until they finally entered a room, that seemed to be Leekie's office. 

Delphine fumbled in the darkness and after a silent click the low light of a laptop screen filled the room with a little light.

"Please enter your user ID and password," the system prompted.
    
    
    aleekie

"And the password?"
    
    
    delphine

Access Denied.

"Merde. Looks like he changed his pattern."

"Next attempt." Cosima lifted the laptop to retrieve a little yellow post-it attached to the bottom of the computer.
    
    
    324b21

"Wow I never would have guessed that..." But they were finally logged in. 

"Maybe we shouldn't login to the wireless LAN," Cosima hesitated. "Let's take the machine and get out of here." They closed the cover and took out the cables, packing everything together in the laptop bag.

"Give me a minute," Delphine whispered. "Let me grab a few things."

Two minutes later she was back with a backpack and they slipped out through the darkness of the stairs and out of the house.

* * *

When they came back to the apartment there was no discussion how to proceed. The sat down on the couch in the living room, closely cuddled together, Leekie's laptop on their knees.

"Ok let us set up a proxy to access using the web the Tor network," Cosima proposed and opened the settings dialog. "We don't want to be found, right?"

"Oui, ma chérie," Delphine grinned. "I don't want to share you with these killers."

"Okies. We can now switch on the network."

Delphine took the mouse cursor with the track pad, opened the browser and opened the entry page of the DYAD company network.

Moments later they were connected to the internal project repository.

"Much better," Delphine smiled and pulled Cosima closer.

"Great," Cosima answered. "And now? I mean, what exactly are we searching for?"

"Let's start with the projects Aldous was working on. Something that was worth to kill for."

"Like your body hair modification?"

Delphine blushed and pushed Cosima. "You're cheeky."

"You mentioned a research project about aging. Where would you search for the info about it?"

"There is a project directory," Delphine explained and opened an input form with a few clicks through the big menu. "Now let's enter a few words to search for and restrict the query on proposals, pre-project researches and internal memos. Voila."

A list of matching entries appeared after a few seconds. They quickly scrolled through them until a highlighted entry was visible. 'Project HGPS' it read. 

"I remember the project," Delphine explained. "A seven year old girl with Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome. She aged about approximately thirty years in something like three months. When we had the cure ready she looked like forty, but we could stop the progeria and saved her life."

"Hmmm. That has a lot of potential," Cosima answered. "If you would analyze the single genetic commands we would understand how aging works."

"And mess around with it. Just like Aldous proposed." Delphine summarized what both women were thinking. She opened a folder with several files to show Cosima. "Look inside that folder. We always have four of these sequences. These are binary files which are encoded with 2 bit words to define the nucleotides C, G, A and T."

"Yes, that's similar to what we do," Cosima confirmed. "How do these four sequences relate to each other?"

"The first one is the ID sequence," Delphine explained. "It is used by the carrier virus to select the chromosomes and location to be altered. To avoid the risk of random infection it usually contains a sequence which is unique to the subject to be cured."

"The second one is the BAD sequence. It contains the genetic sequence we identified as source of the health problems and is to be replaced by the GOOD sequence to cure it. The carrier virus is spreading all over the subject's organism searching for ID sequences and replacing the BAD ones with the GOOD sequences. Both sequences must have the same length in order to avoid damage."

"Obvs."

"And finally we have the DYAD sequence which simply is a marker indicating that the chromosome set has been changed. The carrier virus never touches these and as soon as no more unchanged chromosomes can be found, the virus no longer propagates and the cure is complete."

"How long does it usually take?"

"Not longer than 2 hours usually," Delphine answered. "But most of the changes are achieved within the first 20 minutes. We tried different versions of the carrier virus. One of the first versions was spreading a lot faster, but if could lead to a shock. Believe me, the carrier virus is a really powerful machine and we have a lot of possibilities to program its behavior."

"Wow that is really impressing." 

"It is."

"But one thing I don't understand," Cosima thoughtfully added. "If that marker sequence is already there, there wouldn't be a way to apply a second cure to the same subject. Like you cured a small defect of protruding ears, and later you find the subject is ill with cancer and needs another cure."

"Hmmm oui," Delphine nodded. "We are aware of the problem. Any idea how to solve it?"

"Why not organize the marker sequence like a directory," Cosima proposed. "Like a table of contents. Or the release notes of a software program."

"That's it," Delphine responded enthusiastically. "We should work on that concept very soon."

She yawned.

"But not tonight," Cosima grinned. "Let's call it a night and tomorrow is another day. I think we are a good deal closer to solve our riddle."


	8. The Funeral

When Delphine got up in the morning, Cosima was already busy. She sat in the living room, typing quickly on her laptop.

"Good morning, ma chérie," she greeted the other woman. "You're up early."

"Hey, Baguette," Cosima grinned. "I had something in my mind I badly needed to check. I had Scott in WhatsApp earlier and had him send me that little program we made to analyze our sequences."

"Cool. Did you find out anything?"

"Not really," Cosima sighed. "Maybe we were looking at the wrong sequence."

"Maybe," Delphine nodded. "We could browse through a few more projects later, if you like. Not before breakfast though." 

"Good idea," Cosima confirmed. "I'm starving. I remember a little Café down the road near the shopping center. Wear something and we could go."

"I badly need to call Maman," the French woman said. 

"Use my smartphone," Cosima offered. "But call from the Café. Just in case they listen to her phone too."

Delphine quickly dressed and they left for breakfast, walking down the road hand in hand.

_Why does it feel so easy with Delphine?_ Cosima wondered. _We've only known each other for a few days and we are still in our exploring phase. But it always feels comfortable._

"I like your smile," Delphine observed. "How can you smile after only a few hours of sleep, even before you had a cup of coffee?"

"That's only your fault, Puppy," Cosima grinned. "I like to have you here with me, holding hands, talking, you know."

_And though. Sometime soon she would have to return home,_ Cosima thought and suddenly her heart was a lot heavier. What would remain after they left their hiding place and returned to their lives?

She shrugged off her thoughts. "We still have today," she said and Delphine understood what she meant. 

They ordered coffee, bread rolls and croissants. While they ate they discussed the next steps and Cosima gave her friend and update about her situation. "My boss needs me back in Minneapolis very soon. Our research project has to look for another funding source and they want me to prepare a proposal paper for a new development activity. I talked him into allowing me a few more days off, but he needs me in a conference call at 11am to discuss the paper with one of the main sponsors."

Delphine swallowed and nodded silently. It was no use of pretending it could go on like this forever. They both had to face the facts. Would they be able to just go ahead?

"I need a cigarette," she said. "And I'll try to call Maman. I hope she is not mad at me, because I didn't call earlier."

Cosima gave her the smartphone and Delphine kissed her and left the Café. Cosima watched her though the window as she was talking on the phone. She was so beautiful and she was never able to stop looking at her. _Shit, Cosima, you are falling for her._

After a while, Delphine finally ended the call and returned back inside the Café and to their table. 

"You wouldn't believe it," she started to tell Cosima the news. "The police has closed the case and set Helena free. The autopsy found that Aldous died of a natural cause of death. He had a congenital defect of the vessels that caused the stroke."

She was silent for a moment. "This is what they found out. But I doubt that he would have reached his age with such a defect. His life expectancy would have been significantly lower."

"Hmm that sounds really strange," Cosima confirmed. "Maybe that's a hint we should follow later."

"Talking about 'later'," Delphine added. "His funeral will be after noon at 1pm."

"Oh..."

"I know. I was surprised too. I agreed with maman to meet at 11."

"I will come with you," Cosima promised. "Wait... Shit, I almost forget the conference call."

"Then come to the cemetery when you're done," Delphine proposed. "Maman insisted that her driver would pick me up. So you can take the car there."

Cosima nodded. The timing was bad, but she would be there for her friend. 

"I will be there," she confirmed.

"Thank you," Delphine said with quiet voice. 

They were silent for a moment, and then Delphine smiled. "Be prepared to meet Maman and the rest of my family," she added.

"Oh wow," Cosima grinned. "So officially?"

Now Delphine blushed. "You will like her," she said instead of an answer. 

* * *

And then Delphine was gone. A big limousine had taken her away and it didn't take more than ten minutes for Cosima to feel alone, although she was used to it. 

She browsed through her draft paper and her notes to prepare for the conference call, and then decided to get dressed for the funeral to be ready to leave as soon as the call was over. She chose a dark gray shirt to her black leggings and ankle boots and decided to wear a black jacket over the shirt. For a moment she thought about heading to the shopping center to buy something more appropriate for a funeral, but the call would start in a bit.

She was distracted most of the time during the call, though she was well prepared and had the keywords for the proposal in her notes. Her boss made it clear, how important the topic was for him and the whole department and she had the impression, the sponsor seemed to be completely oblivious what she was talking about. 

It was a good while after noon when the call finally ended and Cosima was scared when she checked the time. "Shit," she exclaimed. "I really need to hurry up..."

She grabbed her bag and key and hurried out of the apartment and to the car. It took her a few more minutes to find the location of the cemetery with her smartphone and made it find a route. Then started the car and followed the routing system's directions. 

She was almost in time if only the parking lot in front of the cemetery wasn't completely full of cars. With a silent swear she followed the road into a back street, searching for a place to park the car. 

Ten minutes later she arrived at the funeral. The ceremony had already started and she sneaked into the chapel and stood behind the last row of the benches. 

There were several speakers praising Leekie's merits to science and teaching, presented him as caring, dedicated and passionate scientist, which his students and staff set great value on. Cosima was surprised, how many praising words could be said about her hated biology teacher. 

In the back of the chapel a few more people were standing. She wasn't the only one who had been late. She scanned the audience and noticed her classmate Rachel Duncan not far away from her near the aisle of the chapel. Remembering her incident with Leekie on the school anniversary she clenched her fists angrily. What kind of business had that bitch at Leekie's funeral? She tried to ignore Rachel and followed the speeches. 

At the end of the service there was a sudden movement in the audience. Some people started to leave through the aisle and Cosima observed Rachel looking out for somebody. Her glance finally focused on a tall guy with a black coat and a heavy looking business briefcase. He nodded inconspicuously to Rachel, but when he passed her, he quickly handed over the briefcase while Rachel gave him a small package in return. Then he vanished through the entrance and Rachel moved in the opposite direction and was gone too.   
  
Cosima was taken by surprise by the strange observation. Who would perform such kind of business transaction during a funeral? 

Before she could finish her thoughts and take a decision the service was over and people started moving out. They squeezed through the crowd that came through the aisle and moved to the front, where Delphine stood with the members of her family.

"Hey Cosima," Delphine greeted her friend. "You were late..."

"I'm kind of always late, though," Cosima nodded, "so, kind of always sorry." 

Delphine took the other woman's hand and gently guided her through the people around her to an older woman, dressed in an elegant black dress. 

"Maman," she addressed her. "I'd like to introduce you a very good friend of my. Meet Cosima Niehaus. She's a really brilliant biologist working for one of Uncle Pierre's research institutes."

"Enchantée," Madame Cormier glanced at her from head to toe before she offered her a hand.

"Enchantée, madam," Cosima answered. "Very nice to meet you."

They shook hands and Cosima smiled, and awkward moment running by. 

"A brilliant biologist, you said," Delphine's mother repeated. "Did you offer her a job in one of our labs then? I hate Pierre getting all the good ones."

"Maman," Delphine blushed. "We only met. We didn't have the time to discuss..."

Cosima shook a few more hands until they met another woman nearly their age. "And this is my cousin Danielle," Delphine introduced them. "Danielle, meet Cosima. She was the one that saved me and helped me escape the police and everything."

Danielle's smile revealed much of her relationship to Delphine. Cosima gave her a warm smile. "Nice to meet, Danielle," she greeted her. "And thanks big times for borrowing us your apartment to hide."

"Hey Cosima," Danielle smiled, "and very welcome. Whoever is a friend of Delphine is a friend of mine too."

* * *

It took a while until the two women could leave the Cormier family and return to the apartment. Cosima had been introduced to "Uncle Pierre" and they had an enthralling discussion on some of Cosima's research projects, while Delphine and Danielle were whispering and giggling like teenage girls. After all Madame Cormier said her goodbye and the little gathering resolved, as if the others were bound to follow her action. 

Cosima sank onto the couch the moment she entered the apartment and Delphine threw her heels by and slipped out of his mourning outfit and cuddled close to Cosima in just her undies and pantyhose. 

"Hmmm," Cosima purred when their lips met and pulled her close. "I was thinking about that all day."

"Oui. I should have guessed," Delphine smiled. "And I was thinking just the same. Let's have a little break before we go through the sequences of the stroke projects."

"Good plan," Cosima grinned slipping a hand into the other woman's panties. "I want to make crazy science with you."


	9. DYAD

It was getting dark outside when they returned to their computers. Delphine had opened a bottle of red wine and they were drinking again. 

"Let's start with an index search," Cosima proposed. "Looking for keywords like 'stroke', 'vein' and 'capillary'."

Delphine quickly entered the search words and started the search. It took a while to show all the matches, which appeared one by one in the result list. 

The diabetes project was one of the first that appeared in the list. 

"That is close," Cosima commented. "But not close enough. Even by reversing the effect he wouldn't have died fast enough."

'Arteriosclerosis' was one of the next in the list. They nodded in agreement. That was an option they needed to check. 

'Cerebral hemorrhage' was the one that finally took their attention. Delphine opened a few files with documentation and read the summary loud. 

"Bingo," Cosima said. "This one is hot. Can we see the sequences?"

"Oui. There should be 4 files in the data folder." She opened another folder and they looked at the file list.

"Let me guess. That one is the ID sequence." Cosima pointed to the entry.
    
    
    ID_20160902_CEREBHEM_021

"Yes. And these are GOOD and BAD sequences. There is a naming convention to ensure that we can clearly identify them."

"And the 'DYAD' sequence to be complete," Cosima nodded. "I see your company is giving employees pain in the ass to keep the records well sorted."

Delphine raised an eyebrow. "This is for safety reasons. Imagine you'd use the wrong sequence on the wrong patient."

"What does that entry here mean?" Cosima pointed to an entry below the sequence files. 

Delphine opened the file. "This is interesting," she commented after reading the notice at the beginning of the entry. "There has been a variant of the sequences. Looks like somebody is working on something similar. Like a general cure against strokes."

"Then there should have been another project in our result list," Cosima observed. "What if somebody was messing around with these data?"

Now Delphine looked really worried. "That would be terrible," she confirmed and scrolled down further. "Here is another hint. An internal dossier referenced as 'CER53AT884'. Let me find this."

Quickly she opened the search form again, copied the reference number to the field and hit 'Enter'. 

The result list consisted of one link. She clicked it, but instead of a file only an alert opened: "The entry you were looking for has been classified as 'top secret'. Remote access not possible."

"Wow," Cosima exclaimed. "Looks like somebody is hiding something."

"Merde!"

"Is there another way to see the dossier or the files of that project?"

"Yes there is," Delphine confirmed. "But only from a machine in the virus lab."

"The sanctum of DYAD," Cosima commented.

"Oui."

For a moment they were silent. "There is something bad happening right before my eyes," Delphine explained. "The virus lab is the part I am responsible for. We design and test the carrier viruses there. The access is restricted to only a few immunologists and other specialists."

"Sure. You don't want any of these to leak out, contaminating everything with some fancy virus."

"Bien sur."

"Then we should go there and find out all about it," Cosima stated leaving no doubt about her intentions.

"There must be a way to smuggle you inside," Delphine thought. "You need a code card for every single person to pass the lock."

"Did Leekie have access?"

"Yes," Delphine nodded. "And I already have an idea where he was keeping his card."

"Then let's get it. And hope his access rights have not been restricted already since his death..."

* * *

Although it was after 10pm the decided to visit the Virus Lab at the DYAD headquarters to find out more about the project modifications they just discovered. 

The first halt was again the home of the Leekies. This time no suspicious cars observed the main entrance as they entered the house. 

"Wow," Cosima grinned. "I didn't remember you had electric light last time we visited," she joked. 

"Did I mention you're cheeky?" Delphine teased.

"Yeah."

They entered a great hall with a large painting of Leekie staring at them. _I wouldn't be able to live in this house with Delphine,_ Cosima told herself. _Even if she really liked me enough to move in with me._

A large staircase spiraled upstairs to the private rooms. Cosima followed Delphine in the bedroom. The furniture and decoration looked expensive and modern. Cosima looked around while Delphine checked the large wardrobe until she found the key card in the pocket of one of Leekie's business jackets.

"Ok, let's go." They left quickly and reached the parking area of the DYAD headquarters. 

Delphine greeted the security guy at the reception area and they took the elevator upstairs to the carrier development department where the virus laboratory was located.

"Ok you go first," she said when they stood in front of the heavy security door that separated the virus lab from the rest of the world. Cosima took the key card out and pulled it through the card reader. After a few seconds the door opened with a 'Bling' and she stepped inside, the door closing immediately behind her.

Delphine followed quickly and showed her the way through a corridor to an office.

"Don't we need some security suits?" Cosima asked. 

"Non," Delphine answered. "The department has a lot of people working on the virus projects. Only a few of them need to work in the clean rooms. Most of the operations are performed by nanobots there. And we will observe everything from the control room here."

She opened another door and they entered the control room, which consisted of a few desks with computers separated from the clean room by a large window of security glass. 

Delphine picked one of the desks and started the computer. Cosima pulled another office chair to the desk so that both woman could look on the large flat screen. 

Cosima moved closer to her, pulling her friend into a kiss, but Delphine pulled away. "Not here," she said. "There is a surveillance camera recording everything here..."

She quickly logged into the system and started the data research she had interrupted earlier.

This time the internal dossier was available. Delphine clicked on the entry CER53AT884 and opened the entry. 

The dossier consisted of a small notice only: "For research reasons the sequence files have been modified and will be maintained in the Project 'NEOSTROKE'".

"I thought it was something like that," Delphine commented and opened the project overview from the local repository. A long list of project names appeared. She scrolled down to the entry NEOSTROKE and opened the folder, which was marked with a 'limited access' icon. 

It looked much like the project folder they had previously checked. The main difference was, that there were a few ID files in the folder. 
    
    
    ID_20160921_NEOSTROKE_001_DCORM  
    
    ID_20160921_NEOSTROKE_002_ALEEK

"Merde!" Delphine exclaimed. 

"Is that what I think we've found?" Cosima asked. "A secret sequence definition for the virus that killed Leekie?"

"Oui. That's what the file name suggests. It will be easy to confirm, that these sequences are part of Aldous' and my genetic material." 

"So you're supposed to be another victim of the murder," Cosima concluded, her voice low from consternation. "You were supposed to be in the same hotel room where Leekie was killed."

"But I was on the rooftop with you, smoking and drinking..."

"...and heavily flirting," Cosima interrupted her. "Looks like I saved your life then."

Suddenly a noise behind them made them jump and turn around, staring at the intruder in shock. A woman around Cosima's age with blond hair in a business suit had appeared out of nowhere and now directed a pistol at them. 

"Good evening, ladies," she addressed them. "Keep quiet and avoid doing something stupid. And please move your hands above your heads."

"Duncan...," Cosima mumbled surprised. 

"Niehaus," Rachel Duncan answered with a voice cold as ice. "I might have known it's you again who stuck their nose in things that do not concern you."

"Rachel," Delphine stammered. "What does that mean? What are you...?"

"It means the game is over, you nosey idiots. You finally found out about the plan and came here to help me complete it."

"I haven't done anything to give you a reason..." Delphine started to argue.

"You exist," Rachel shouted at her. "You took Aldous and you are standing in the way. You've always been. You thought you could stop the big plans we have for mankind by preventing our research on a cure against aging."

"You crazy bitch!" Cosima shouted. "You have no idea what you are messing with! Don't think you'll get away with that."

"We'll see, Niehaus. This time you'll fail it completely and nobody will find some stolen documents on the net." She stepped towards the both women and pushed them back. 

"Don't make a move or I'll have to kill you the ugly way," she spat and opened a drawer from one of the desks to retrieve a roll of duct tape. 

"Get on the floor," she commanded, "and on your belly." She tied their hands with the duct tape and when Cosima started to protest, she also stuck some tape over their mouths to silence them, her pistol never out of reach. 

Both woman were frozen with fright. Was there anything to do to save the woman she loved? Cosima's brain was working feverishly without any idea that would give them a hint of a chance. 

Meanwhile Rachel searched through her posh leather purse and retrieved a vial with a transparent liquid. She unlocked a door of the built-in wardrobe and picked a syringe and a pair of latex gloves, which she put on. Teen she opened the vial and carefully draw the liquid into the syringe. 

"Okay Cormier. Say good-bye to your nerdy girlfriend." She reached for Delphine's arm trying to pull up the sleeve of her blouse, just to find it was fixed with the duct tape. 

"Damn!" She placed the pistol on the table and opened the drawer of the desk again to retrieve a scissors to cut open the duct tape and most of the sleeve. Then she threw the scissors to the floor and pulled the sleeve of the blouse up to find a location for the injection. 

Delphine's eyes were in panic and her arms were shaking in fear, but Rachel found a vein and pushed the needle of the syringe into it, slowly injecting all of the liquid into Delphine's bloodstream. 

Then she took the needle and syringe, pushed both into her purse and took the pistol again, pushing Delphine to the floor to meet her death. 

Cosima silently sobbed as she stared at the motionless body of her lover beside her. She didn't even dare to move to her to hold her close, to feel her warmth one last time, while the virus was slowly killing her.

"Okay Niehaus," Rachel scolded. "You're next, though I need to prepare your death juice first. Any preferences for a way you'd like to die? Stroke is the easiest. Though I am thinking to change your brains and turn you into some imbecile cretin and let you memorize the pain of losing your cute little love toy."

She moved closer to Cosima and punched her face making her nose bleed, then caught some of the blood on a glass. 

"That should be enough for the ID sequence," she grinned. She fed the blood sample into a gene scanner and started the scan from the menu of the device. Then she sat on the desk and started browsing through the project files. "Down syndrome sounds like fun," she scoffed. 

Cosima whimpered her eyes still locked on Delphine's body on the floor. 

She almost jumped when Delphine opened her eyes and looked at her. _She isn't dead!_ she realized. _And her hands aren't tied down..._

She nodded to her friend, trying to tell her with just a move of her head that she understood. 

And then she remembered the scissors which was still laying on the floor between their bodies. 

_Take it,_ she tried to tell Delphine with the move of her head and very slowly the French woman moved her hand, following Cosima's directions until could get hold of it. 

Meanwhile Cosima checked what Rachel was doing and observed that the pistol was laying out of reach for her. With a quick glance at Delphine she asked if she was ready and when Delphine confirmed with a little nod she counted to three with a move of her head. 

With one single move both women jumped on their feet and approached Rachel, Delphine attacking her with the scissors and Cosima pushing the pistol with her elbow throwing it to the floor and away from Rachel. 

Rachel cried out and squirmed with pain and her blood splashed all over the desk and the monitor. 

Moments later Delphine was close to Cosima cutting off the duct tape from her wrists, then grabbed Rachel's arms holding her firmly. 

Cosima reached for the pistol. "Don't move, Duncan!" she exclaimed. "Call the security guy, darling. We need an ambulance and the police of course. Glad we have everything on the surveillance video."

* * *

"I'm still surprised you didn't die," Cosima mused and pulled the blonde woman into a hug. 

"The vulnerability of the procedure has proved to rescue me," Delphine confirmed.

"Now I am even more grateful for the body modification Leekie made for you," Cosima grinned. 

Both woman were sitting in one of the DYAD offices, which has been flooded with police officers. Rachel Duncan had been taken to the hospital. She had lost a lot of blood, but she was out of danger now. 

"Glad she didn't know about the body modification," Delphine smiled. "I can't wait to see her face when the prosecuting attorney tells her during her murder prosecution."

They both giggled. 

"I am glad none of us was dying," Cosima declared. "I would have never gotten over it if you had died." 

"Same with you," Delphine answered and then they kissed again. 

"Dr. Cormier, Miss Niehaus," a police officer interrupted them. "Would you mind answering a few questions for us?"

"Sure," Cosima sighed. "If you don't mind the blood and everything..."


	10. Epilogue

"You are looking totally adorable, Delphine!" Cosima inhaled to look of her blonde friend who stood in front of her wearing a satin pushup bra and matching panties. They had returned to the exclusive house of the Leekies and searched through Delphine's large walk-in wardrobe trying many of her pieces of clothing. "Your boobs are just perfect with this bra. I totally envy you." Her hands wandered over her chest caressing her gently. 

Delphine smiled at Cosima. "I love your small breasts too," she affirmed. "But if you would like to have some more, we could talk about a small body modification for you too." She reached over to touch Cosima's chest feeling her nipples harden immediately on her touch. 

"Nah," Cosima grinned. "Not before they start to sag." She pulled Delphine closer and kissed her passionately until the blonde girl withdraw.

"Be careful," she moaned softly. "If we continue like this, we will not be at maman's house in time."

"Oh there is more than an hour left," Cosima answered and started to remove the satin bra and bend down to kiss Delphine's nipples. 

"We still need to pick some reasonable dress," Delphine demurred halfheartedly. "And you did already make me come twice..."

"The best things come in threes," Cosima contradicted but Delphine pulled away and took a large box out of the wardrobe. "And after the weekend I will be back in Minneapolis, you know. I already started to miss you..."

"Let's first get you dressed up too." She rummaged through the comprehensive collection of underwear and brought out a really little thong and offered it to the other woman. "Wear this for me," she commanded. Cosima grinned and slipped into the little piece of lingerie, the fabric hardly covering her privates. 

"Nice one," she confirmed. 

"And showing of your cute little bum nicely." The women giggled and Delphine could not resist to smack Cosima's buttocks playfully. 

"Yeah, most of my ass weakly covered," she commented and took a plain cotton slip out of the lingerie box. "Maybe I'd better wear that one."

"No way," Delphine protested. "Not for this occasion."

"Your mother will hardly get the chance to see any of my underwear," Cosima grinned. "It would be just for safety reasons."

"You're cheeky."

"I know."

"But I have another idea." Delphine continued her search through the box and took out another cotton knickers with a print. 

"Cute choice," Cosima grinned. "With all female anatomy printed on the fabric."

"A present for my biology degree from Danielle," Delphine told her. "The funniest and most embarrassing part of that party."

Cosima slipped into the knickers and posed for Delphine. "As a biologist I should really wear these tonight. It is good to have some guidance with documented knowledge. You know where my ovaries are located and everything."

"Trust me, I would find your vagina even blindfolded."

"I bet," Cosima grinned. "Speaking of this. I saw you have some really kinky pieces too. Mind showing me some of these or even wear them for me?"

"Hmm not sure if I should..."

"Coward!" she teased. "You totally should!" 

"Okay I will. One day soon. But now let's get dressed for lunch with maman."

"Awww." 

"So what do you think I should be wearing?" she asked.

"Oh if you're not wearing a lab coat with nothing beneath, you should totally wear that black widow costume, including the black lace teddy and pantyhose."

She helped Delphine changing into that outfit with a lot of "Ohh" and "Ahh" and they were admiring her beauty in the large mirror when she was dressed. 

"Perfect. Now your turn, sweetie." She turned the still half naked women around and looked at her body from head to toe. "I have a nice idea."

She picked a black set of lingerie and a bodice with a long line of buttons and dressed Cosima with a lot of touching and caressing her body, taking time to close all the buttons from the top to the bottom. Then she added black leggings and a short leather skirt. Cosima's ankle boots finally completed the outfit and they checked in the mirror again.

"What an awesome couple," Delphine smiled and Cosima nodded in agreement before they kissed again, their bodies moving together in a close embrace. 

* * *

Delphine's mother lived in a castle-like mansion outside the city, which was surrounded by an impressive park. 

When they arrived at the main entrance they were greeted by a tall butler. "Bonjour, Mademoiselle Delphine, good day madam. Madame Cormier is already waiting for you in the reception room."

"Merci, Jean-Claude," Delphine greeted him. "We find the way..."

The butler bowed and the two women went through the hall and into a nicely decorated room where they met Delphine's mother sitting on a chaise longe.

"Bonjour maman, comment allez vous?" Delphine greeted the older lady, hugged her and kissed her on both cheeks. 

"Bonjour Delphine," she greeted her daughter. "Je vais tres bien. Fortunately that woman didn't do any harm to any of you."

Delphine turned to face Cosima. "Maman," she said solemnly to her mother, pointing to her girlfriend. "You already met Cosima at the funeral. We met at the weekend and Cosima has been there for me since then, helped me cope with my painful loss. She is the love of my life and she will always have a place in my heart."

Mrs. Cormier raised from her chaise longe and moved to Cosima, offering her a hand. "Cosima, I am really pleased to have you here." She shook Cosima's hand a few times. 

A little tear was forming in Cosima's eye. She was touched from Delphine's proclamation, overwhelmed from the emotion. 

The older woman released Cosima's hand and pulled her in a warm-hearted embrace. "I am totally pleased too, madam."

"Please call me Josephine," the French lady added and smiled. 

"I would love to." Cosima confirmed. 

"But now let's move to the dining room. Lunch is ready and I think there is a lot of things I want to talk to you about."

The maid served the soup in the elegant dining room where they sat on a large wooden table. They talked lightly and the both friends had to answer a lot of questions about the incident at DYAD and how they could escape the deathly thread of Rachel Duncan. 

When they waited for the main dish Josephine addressed Cosima. "We have already talked about it on the funeral, Cosima. I want you to work for DYAD and not only because I see my daughter is a completely different person since the two of you met. I have never seen Delphine so happy, so balanced for so many years. Today I know, making her marry Aldous wasn't the best decision we made and I deeply regret it. Whatever this woman told you, Cosima - she badly needs you around."

"Maman..." 

"Être tranquille, je ne suis pas encore fait."

She turned to Cosima again. "The other reason is, that I want you to work on the 'Niehaus Sequence'. We are still at the beginning of the development there."

"The... 'Niehaus Sequence'?" Cosima couldn't believe what she heard.

"Oui, ma chérie," Delphine smiled and explained: "Your idea we were talking about. Making a table of content in the 'DYAD' sequence to allow multiple modification of the genetic structure. You remember? I have submitted the request for a patent of this concept in your name."

"Wow," Cosima was really surprised now. "But I was only brainstorming..."

"You can be sure, this idea is worth a few million dollars," Josephine added. "And you might understand, it is easier for all involved if you join DYAD. Otherwise I would need to talk to Pierre and make him move the Minneapolis branch of the research group to the DYAD group."

"So do you really mean it?" 

"I do," Josephine confirmed. "Especially for the first reason I explained. I really love my daughter."

"And so do I," Cosima said blushing. 

"By the way, Scott already confirmed that he is joining DYAD too," Delphine added. "He will support you in the advancement of the genetic grammar you developed. 

"Which is a really impressing achievement you already made," Josephine added. "I am sure one day you will be a Nobel Laureate just for this part of your research. 

"Josephine, now you're really embarrassing me," Cosima answered modestly. 

Josephine smiled. "So what do you think?" she insisted. "I want to hear your decision as soon as possible."

"I am honored that you offered me such a great chance," Cosima answered. "I will think about it."

"Is there anything we can do to help you decide?" Delphine asked. 

"Hmmh yes," Cosima nodded. "The thing has a totally personal part, beside the job offer. And I would like to talk to you about that part to be sure it is the right decision."

"The answer is Yes," Delphine smiled. "Je t'aime, ma chérie. I really love you, Cosima. I have lived too long without love. So many lost years."

"And I love you, Delphine," Cosima answered. "With all my heart. Where do you want me to sign, Josephine?"

The three women laughed and the two friends kissed happily. There wasn't anything else that needed to be said. 

\- THE END -

**Author's Note:**

> Let me say a big Thank You to Lanie Sullivan for beta reading my story and correcting a lot of my spellings and grammar failures.


End file.
